Sew Gross: The Gruesome Embroidery of Ana Teresa Barboza

Just look at Ana Teresa Barboza’s artwork. Have you ever seen embroidery this sick in your life? Yeah. It’s fucking killer.

Barboza is used to exploring the human body thread by thread. To create her pieces she essentially becomes a funeral director, mortician and undertaker all in one.

Using clothing, embroidery, yarn and wool as artistic mediums, she fragments, recomposes, and then disembowels her own self-portraits.

The process isn't meant to be as macabre as it looks. Through embroidery and hybrid garments, Barboza has fleshed out the different bonds that unite us with other people. She used the dress as a metaphor for different relationship modalities, highlighting how relationships condition us in specific situations and force us to adopt specific behaviors— making the garment an extension of the manner in which we relate to others.

Once these notions are brought forth, her artwork takes on a Buffalo Bill or Re-Animator-esque quality: Pulling parts of yourself from deep inside and wearing them for all to see. Can you imagine a more frightening costume than that?